From the spinners, Anil and I have been together for a long time and I respect him a lot.

Anyone would want to play like him, he was completely at a different level as far as mental toughness is concerned.

Before you lay a foundation on the cricket field, there should be a solid foundation in your heart and you start building on that. After that as you start playing more and more matches, you...

It has been very good here, but the World Cup game was different. It had a different significance to it.

He’s bowling well at the moment and looks in good form. But we’re not thinking about what they will do to us. We’re more interested in what we can do to them.

Critics haven’t taught me my cricket, and they don’t know what my body and mind are up to.

Dressing room discussions should not come out. If it has come out it was absolutely wrong.

I believe every era has its significance and the same holds true for players and coaches.

He always used to look at his shadow and run his fingers through his hair.

I have never tried to compare myself to anyone else.

As a kid I loved John McEnroe. They called me Mac because, while everyone else liked Borg, I was crazy about McEnroe. I tried wearing headbands and sweatbands, and whooping at people. It didn’t quite...

I get 0.5 seconds to react to a ball, sometimes even less than that. I can’t be thinking of what XYZ has said about me. I need to surrender myself to my natural instincts. My...

I will know how much impact my elbow is going to take only when I practice more. Frankly it is too early to say when I will be back.

New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori is a very good bowler.

We used to call him the ‘Shadow Man’ for this habit of his.

If efforts to do social work are couched in selfish motives, then they will die a premature death. Why would my efforts get politicised? I have values I inherited from my father. He helped many....

When I was 15, I started playing first class cricket and always dreamt of being a Test cricketer, wanted to do something for the country, married in 1995, have 2 kids it’s been great.

I just keep it simple. Watch the ball and play it on merit.

I think I have already spoken a lot. Now it is time for me to play.

At least with me, the match starts much, much earlier than the actual match.

The entire country looks up to me and they have expectations and that’s why I have to work very hard.

My point of view is that when I am playing cricket I cannot think that this game is less or more important.

I never played with a runner in my entire life, even in schools, because only I know where the ball is going and how hard, when I hit the ball, something my runner will never...

And that is the reason why this victory is great, because different players have made contributions to the win.

I have no doubt in my mind that Anil is India’s greatest bowler ever.

People throw stones at you and you convert them into milestones.

I have never thought where I will go, or forced any targets on myself.

It was an innings of great discipline.

Isn’t cricket supposed to be a team sport? I feel people should decide first whether cricket is a team game or an individual sport.

I have played for 15 years and it has been a dream.

At the start of my career, when I used to toss and turn at night, I was fighting that feeling and wanting to go to sleep. Now I know that’s normal, so I’ll just get...

Pakistan have gathered momentum after their test and one-day successes against England. So have we, after our recent run of successes.

I hate losing and cricket being my first love, once I enter the ground it’s a different zone altogether and that hunger for winning is always there.

When there is time to think about cricket, I think but when there is time to be with family, I try to do justice to that aspect of my life as well.

Early in the day, my kids woke me up and took me to their room, which they had decorated for the occasion. It was a pleasant surprise.

I am not thinking too far ahead, just want to take it one thing at a time.

Obviously after such a long gap, one itches to get back to the game and score big runs.

I always had a dream to play for India but I never let it put pressure on me.

Winters is a bit difficult for someone like me but in international matches this does not matter because it will not be the first time that we would be playing in such conditions.

Any active sportsman has to be very focused; you’ve got to be in the right frame of mind. If your energy is diverted in various directions, you do not achieve the results. I need to...

I grew up looking at my father as to how to behave. In watching him I grasped so many things. His own temperament was of a calm person. He was very composed and I never...

The kids were very happy, they woke me up and took me to their room which they had decorated. It looked like they had done a lot of special planning and they were enjoying. It...

If one man is representing India in cricket, then yes, blame that person when things go wrong.

Shoaib Akhtar has been playing for 5, 6 years and is an experienced bowler.

It doesn’t always happen according to the way you have planned things out but I feel if you have covered most of the aspects, it does help out there in the middle.

I wished a kid good health and speedy recovery and he told me ‘my life is in your hands. Only your prayers and wishes will help me recover’. It’s only when you get to hear...

Schools across India do not have teachers, libraries, playing grounds and even toilets. I do not want to see empty classrooms, empty libraries. I do not want to see cattle grazing on fields meant to...

But eventually it is a game of cricket.

THE INTERNATIONAL cricket calendar shouldn’t be so packed with action that it drives spectators away. Also, there should be enough space between cricket events to help players recharge their batteries – not just physically but...

There are over 200 million illiterate women in India. This low literacy negatively impacts not just their lives but also their families’ and the country’s economic development. A girl’s lack of education also has a...